1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a processing apparatus or the like in a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) type network system that transmits reply information to a highest-order apparatus in response to an inquiry from that highest-order apparatus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
This system is a so-called Peer-to-Peer type data contents distribution system, and it differs from a client-server type data contents distribution system in that data contents that are distributed by streaming are transmitted or received between node apparatuses as clients.
A distribution system for stream data is disclosed in patent document 1 as an example of this kind of system, and in that system, each node apparatus has topology information for identifying the network connection relationship, and by using the topology information, each node apparatus is able to connect to an identified upstream (higher-order) node apparatus, receive stream data that is transmitted from that upstream node apparatus, and transfer (relay) that stream data to a downstream (lower-order) node apparatus. By doing this, it is possible to prevent access from being concentrated on a certain computer such as a server.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese patent application 2003-169089